Saturday, July 26, 2008

My name was recently pulled in Cathy's Play it Forward contest, and my CQ goodie bag arrived in yesterdays' mail. This is what I received, and there are lot of trims I can use in my CQ. Thanks so much again Cathy, this really made my day!

As part of my own Play it Forward gift, and in celebration of my 100th (actually 104th post), I am offering this eyeglass case I just completed.

If you would like to win, just leave a comment, and I will choose a name next Saturday morning, 8/2/2008.

Friday, July 25, 2008

I have been honored by my friend Rengin with the "Brillante Weblog award, and I appreciate this award being passed on to me.

The rules for receiving this award are:1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog.2. Link to the person you received your award from.3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.4. Put links of those blogs on yours.5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you’ve nominated.

At first I had a hard time finding blogs I follow to receive this award, as the ones I checkedhave already received it. But the below named blogs are some of my favorite ones.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

This is the last month of the Crazy Quilting International "New 2 Group" round robin I have been involved in. This month it was Kari's block I was working on, and I am sending it home to her today. I did these cast-on pink flowers, the feather stitching around the circle, and the pink string-of-pearls stitching on either side of the circle.

This is a picture of the entire block. Kari had a fabulous block to start out with and the other 4 ladies before me have done a gorgeous job.

Saturday, July 19, 2008

I am joining Helen Stubbings (Hugs and Kisses) Stitching Angel project. If you are interested in joining you can find out more about it here. August 15th is the deadline for signing up. You can even stop by the blog every week for 7 weeks and get a new stitching project if you can't commit to pampering someone else.

Friday, July 18, 2008

I realized this morning I have not posted for 3 weeks. We have been getting the house and yard ready for company in 3 more weeks, and youngest daughter Katie's wedding. The yard has been a little more problematic, as it has been sadly neglected for 2 years while I have been working long hours and also the fact that with the California wildfires, a large concentration of smoke has been in my area, making for almost a month of "bad air days", and that in addition to several weeks of hot, hot weather and some 100+ and even several 108 degree days. The back yard is almost taken care of, and then I can concentrate on some trimming out front.

This was my sample of cretan stitch. One of the ladies pointed out that the second one looked like barbed wire, and it does.

These are my examples of the chevron stitch, and Algerian eye (starry looking stitches).

Wednesday afternoon was granddaughter Kyleigh's and my "special day" and I took advantage of her being her to modelthe veil I made 36 years ago.

At the time I made this, it was right after Romeo and Juliet came out, and I made a "Juliet cap". I machine appliqued all the lace on the bottom of the veil.

This is the back of the veil, and shows the cap a little better.

DD Katie wants to wear my veil, but does not want the cap and wants it shorter. It is a little long by today's standards. My task tonight is to cut the cap off, shorten the veil, and attach it to a comb.

Kyleigh has been wanting to have a "special day" for several months because she wanted to "sew and quilt". My friend Candi several months ago gave Kyleigh and I a litttle Janome machine for Kyleigh to sew with and she just lives for the days she can come over and sew. With Kyleigh's gymnastics, swim meets, art classes, it is sometimes difficult to find the time, but we did this week.

A long time ago, I received 4" samples of fabric from quilt shops. I had a stack of these and I gave them to Kyleigh to sew together. (That is why nothing really matches). She decided that instead of a quilt this time, she could make this piece into a sleeping bag for her American Girl Doll. This time she even quilted it herself. I just drew some lines on the back of the quilt that she followed. While they were not 1/4 inch seams, they were pretty even. She did a really good job and we both had a blast!

I finished stitching on the TIF for May. I plan to assemble this into an eyeglass case for my sister's birthday in August. She will happen to be here, to attend Katie's wedding 2 days later, so I have a couple of weeks to assemble it. This time I used the color scheme for the month of May.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Well my TIF for June still looks like this. I had planned to make this into an eyeglass case yesterday after I got off work, but it did not quite work out that way.

We have been busy doing things around the house that need to be done before the influx of relatives for Katie's wedding.DH decided that the next thing he is going to work on is a problem with the French doors he installed. My buffet sits right up against the edge of the door he needs to work on, so I had to totally empty dishes, glassware. All the stuff on the the shelf above it, and some tins on another shelf. So this occupied my time, instead of my finishing this project up.

This month as I was thinking of stashes and the stories behind them, I was reminded I also have a stash of sewing machines which I just added to this month.

1. I have the old Singer my parents got me for the Christmas I turned 13. It is in a rounded wooden case.

2. I have a Singer Touch and Sew John bought me right after we were married. It was used but it ran great. This is the machine he still uses to sew sails, and boat-related items.

3. I have a Singer Featherweight. Right before my DFIL died, when he was becoming incapacitated with his Alzheimer's, I flew down to attend a wedding of a friend in San Diego, and stayed with my in-laws. I was big into quilting and asked DMIL if she had ever seen in her garage sale visits a featherweight, and I described it to her. That day we put DFIL in a daycare for the day, and went to a bunch of quilt shops I had heard about. While we were driving around, she told me she had gone to a garage sale and had seen a little machine in the garbage, and asked the people if she could have it, or buy it. They gave it to her. She got it tuned up for $65 and said I could have it, if it was what I was looking for. It was right around my birthday and she gave it to me!

4. Juki Serger. When my oldest daughter got married, she wanted me to make the 4 flower girls dresses, of this really slinky slippery fabric. Halfway into this project my Singer serger had a nervous breakdown and I ended up buying this Juki serger and it is so easy to thread and the tension is always perfect.

6. Bernina 185. This is my embroidery machine, but I also use it for regular sewing and love it.

7. Juki TL98. This is the machine I use for quilting. This is actually the 2nd one I got, the first one was a lemon, so they gave me the demo unit and it works like a dream.

8. Huskystar ER10 embellisher. This is my newest toy, I bought almost 2 weeks ago with my economic stimulus check. I having a great time playing with this, and hope to learn more about what I can do with it soon.